When the baton breaks, the orchestra plays on
mainAt 3:12 on the video that follows you will see half a baton flying up into the air.
The other half remained in the conductor’s hand.
And the band played on.
Well done, Paul Mauffray.
Comments
MOST READ TODAY:
-
Daily Comfort Zone
A rediscovered lullaby from Auschwitz
Leo Geyer, a doctoral student at Oxford University…
-
Opera
Guess what? New operagoers prefer old operas
Memo to Peter Gelb: Don’t read the Opera…
-
News
Hilary Hahn: I’m under AI attack
The US violinist has posted this message on…
-
Orchestras
Another job for Jaap van Zweden
The Dutch conductor, ousted after a six-year spell…
Makes no difference, or shouldn’t. It’s the hands that should convey the information, not the stick.
Although it can be easier to see a baton in your peripheral vision without having to look up, even that doesn’t matter if the information is not helpful (e.g. circles instead of beat patterns).
Bruce is exactly right.
I saw that once. Last year when Jean-François Rivest was conducting the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal. I wasn’t sure what I saw at first. Something flew up into the air. I thought it was the baton – I’ve seen that several times. But when I looked down Rivest still had a stub in his hand. He quickly got rid of that and conducted batonless. Maybe conductors should carry spare batons?
“La bacchetta non suona”, as a legendarian italian conductor once said (!) 😉
Not an uncommon event. I was at a Tennstedt concert when his baton flew away, the same happened to Leinsdorf’s at another concert. An audience member caught his and returned later. Both times the orchestra kept on going.
I’m a little confused by the negative reactions to Bruce’s observations…my own experiences on the podium and in orchestras fully back them…and a lack of stick doesn’t seem to have dimmed the communicative powers of Stokowski, Mitropoulos, Boulez…
The conductors you mention chose to conduct without a stick. Yet there are or were others whose stick technique is or was integral to their conducting style? How would Maazel or Boult be affected by missing their baton? I suppose they would have found ways to compensate, but their conducting style would suddenly change, wouldn’t it?
The occasion when John Pritchard’s toupee came loose whilst conducting the RLPO is still remembered on Merseyside.
Well Mark Elser has never used a baton with the Halle, and one of the finest orchestras around – and a thoughtful
non-flamboyant conductor as well.
Thanks for sharing, Norman. And the band that played on was the Hradec Kralove Philharmonic to which I am indeed very thankful that they played on after the baton broke.
In reply to Bruce, well sometimes it does make a difference if the conductor uses a baton. You may notice in the video that there is a bit more precision with it and a bit more freedom without it. Now I am trying to decide if I should try more often to conduct completely without baton …
Don’t think the lack of precision has anything to do with the lack of the baton. I’ve looked at a few of your other videos on youtube and the orchestras never sound together. Charlatanism at its finest.
I always welcome professional criticism and would invite you to send your comments for my consideration by email or in the comment sections of my videos.
Why, Mr Lebrecht, is this deemed newsworthy – this happens often but no-one (in the profession) – well almost no-one, gives it a second thought!
One of the reasons I ALWAYS keep a spare on the conductor’s desk. I also have a greater tendency to be a “dropper.’
The orchestra keeps playing just fine. Some musicians smile. So do some of us upon noticing that.
The sloppiness of the ensemble has nothing to do with the lack of a baton in the hand…
at what moment did you think there was any sloppiness? They seemed quite fine to me both before and after the baton broke.